


Heart With No Companion

by laireshi



Category: Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Fix-It of Sorts, Hydra Steve Rogers, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Manipulation, Marvel 616/MCU Crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 01:14:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13260504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laireshi/pseuds/laireshi
Summary: Hydra Cap captures MCU Tony and thinks it's a great idea to charm him into waking 616 Tony from his coma.





	Heart With No Companion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cap Iron Man Community](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Cap+Iron+Man+Community).



> Loosely based on the following prompt: "Hydra!Cap gets a dirty bad wrong Christmas present".
> 
> With thanks to FestiveFerret for beta!

Steve visits him every day, but Tony never changes; he’s comatose inside the Starktech pod that no one can crack open.

Steve sits next to him. Talks about his day. Touches the glass over Tony’s face and wishes he could touch the man inside again.

 _He loved you_. Steve certainly doesn’t, but there _is_ something about Tony Stark that doesn’t let Steve go, something Steve can’t understand. He needs him to wake up, so that he can learn just _why_ , so he can focus on something that’s _not_ Tony.

He’s not weak like his other self. He’s not.

“Supreme Leader!” An agent yells through the door. The door is closed, of course, and Steve’s orders are are not to bother him when he's inside.

More than a little annoyed, he gets up and leaves Tony in his safe chamber that only Steve has access too. “What is it?” he snaps.

The Hydra agent cowers. “I’m sorry—there were some multiversal disturbances. We caught—”

“Caught who?” Steve asks, his voice icy cold.

“We think it’s Tony Stark.”

Steve, mad only moments ago, finds himself beginning to smile. _Tony Stark_. But he knows exactly where his own Tony is. They must’ve caught him _another_ Tony Stark. They might even deserve a reward.

Of course, nothing will compare to _his_ Tony, but it could be a distraction.

“Where is he?” Steve asks.

“We caught him in the Avengers Mansion garden; two agents are watching him there.”

 _Idiots_ , Steve thinks. _That is not enough to stop any Tony Stark_.

But multiverse travel can be disorienting and hard on the body, especially if Tony doesn’t have his armour. This is getting better and better, Steve thinks.

“Good.” Steve nods. “At ease, agent. Go get a drink. I’ll get him personally.”

“But—”

“Do I need to repeat myself?” Steve asks.

The agent shakes his head immediately.

Steve strides to his personal chambers. He changes into his Captain America suit and smiles at a mirror.

People who’d known him for _years_ never noticed a change when Steve remembered his true identity. A new Tony wouldn’t suspect a thing.

***

Steve sees the scene from afar. Tony, blood on his forehead, is pressed into the ground with a boot between his shoulder blades. There’s no sign of his armour anywhere nearby. The other agents watch him closely, making sure he won’t escape.

Steve slides into the role effortlessly. “Tony?!”

Tony looks in his direction. There’s no immediate relief on his face—weird. But Steve knows what he has to do.

He hits one of the agents with his shield; the agent falls. Steve punches another hard enough to knock him out. Tony’s turning on the ground toward him, and his right eye is bruised.

Steve lets his shield fly harder than normally. The sharp edge beheads the man who was holding Tony down, and his body falls to the ground. _No one hurts Tony but him._ Steve catches his shield and puts it on his back, then runs to Tony.

“Hey, Tony,” he says, smiling. “I was worried I was too late.”

Tony throws him a distrustful look. “Because you care, Rogers, right. I got that from Siberia.”

 _Alternate universe all right_ , Steve thinks—and it seems like Steve Rogers over there isn’t as weak as the Steve in this universe, like he is actually capable of hurting Tony Stark.

Steve expects to feel respect for the man—but mostly, he’s mad at him.

“That’s—” Steve looks around, as if confused. “I think you’re from another universe. Look, Tony, I don’t know if you have HYDRA where you’re from—” Steve pauses, just long enough to see Tony nod tiredly—“but they took over our world. The resistance is small. You need to go with me.”

Tony pushes himself to his knees. He presses his hand against his chest, for a moment. _A heart issue_? Steve wonders. It’s clearly a Tony Stark . . . But then Tony looks at the uniforms of the agents, doesn’t even raise his eyebrow at the beheaded guy, and looks back at Steve, his Captain America suit.

“Yeah, you might be right.”

He tries to get up—but either someone hit him harder than expected, or the multiverse travel took more out of him—and he collapses, immediately.

Steve catches him before he can fall.

“Easy,” he says, lacing his voice with warmth and comfort. “I’ve got you.”

That gets him a weak smile in reply, and then Tony falls unconscious in his arms.

Well, that will make things even easier.

***

When the new Tony wakes up, Steve’s sitting in a chair next to his bed. He’s wearing casual clothes that the weak version of him preferred: a blue t-shirt with a white star on it, soft slacks.

Tony’s eyes flutter open. His expression is closed off. “What’s going on?” he asks.

He’s immediately different than Steve’s Tony. His eyes, for one; brown just seems _wrong_. He seems a bit more broken, if in another way. And, of course, he doesn’t trust Steve immediately.

Steve’s more than a little annoyed at that.

“Are you familiar with the theory of multiple universes?” Steve asks gently.

Tony rolls his eyes. “Do you think my doctorates are in linguistics—wait, nevermind, one is, you can’t believe how it helps with NLP—anyway, my point is, I’m a genius, and you’re asking me that, _seriously_?”

Steve smiles. “Well, you’re a Tony all right,” he says. “I’m not your Steve.”

“I’m gathering that,” Tony says. “But if _I’m_ similar to your Tony, what’s there to say _you_ aren’t like my—like the Rogers from my world?”

Steve looks away. “He hurt you,” he says.

Tony huffs a laugh. “It’s okay,” he says. “It was nothing.”

For a Tony Stark, this one is terrible at lying.

“Where’s your Tony, anyway?” Tony asks, clearly trying to change the topic. “You obviously know him, and this being a parallel world, I’d like to meet my double.”

Steve bites on his lip. It’s surprisingly easy to act like he’s grieving. “He’s—” He hesitates. “He was attacked. He’s comatose, and he experimented on himself, with tech, no one knows how to wake him up.” He looks down. “I don’t know how to get him back.”

“Oh,” Tony says in a small voice. “Figures there’s no happy ending, even if you . . .” He cuts himself off. “Look—I actually want to get home. But I’d feel bad running away, considering the situation you’re in. I can try to wake your Tony. You should figure something out then, right?”

That went easier than Steve expected. “Thank you,” he says, and he doesn’t have to fake gratuity at all.

***

This Tony drinks. A lot. It’s almost fascinating to watch, really. He pokes at the Starktech pod and murmurs to himself, sometimes he waves his hands in the air as if he’s used to holoscreens and then sighs and keeps calculating stuff in his mind. He focuses on the task of waking Tony completely, the way Tony used to drown himself in a project to the exclusion of everything else. He doesn’t ask questions.

But he drinks, and by the end of the day he’s tipsy, still able to do advanced maths but smiling widely at Steve, sometimes touching his arm, his movements loose and uncontrolled.

His Tony has been sober for years.

The other Tony is clearly weaker than him. All the same, Steve finds himself intrigued. Maybe he should make his Tony drink, later . . . But for all that the other Tony spends his days working, Steve’s Tony is still in a coma, and Steve finds himself out of patience.

He’s waiting for Tony one evening. “ _Thank you_ ,” he says. “You don’t have to do that—but _thank you_.”

Tony shrugs. He opens his mouth to say something, but Steve leans in and kisses him.

He’s shorter than Steve’s Tony, and somehow he seems sadder. There’s hesitation in him as he kisses Steve back.

“You don’t want me,” he says when they separate.

“Oh, but I do,” Steve says, and kisses him again, swallowing any other protests.

It’s not _his_ Tony, but it’s _a_ Tony, and that’s good enough.

(Soft and pliant, thanks to the alcohol, his eyes dark and hurt because of his own Steve; this Tony is beautiful, too.)

***

“I’ll be ready in a few days,” Tony announces three days later. “A week tops. I—our tech is slightly different, but I can now see the way he thinks. So, soon.”

Steve wasn’t prepared for the relief he feels.

He doesn’t always watch the other Tony work—his absence started raising questions, even among his advisors, and he _can’t let them know about Tony_. But he always comes in the evening, and these days, Tony kisses him first.

It’s a good scenario.

***

Two days before the week is up, Steve walks into the room with the pod and finds it empty. He immediately takes a fighting stance, spins around, scans the room for threats.

There’s nothing.

He turns to the exit, and that’s when something hits him in the back of his head.

“My cloaking tech _is_ pretty great,” a voice says.

Even in the split moment before he loses consciousness, Steve recognises _his_ Tony.

***

Steve wakes up chained to a wall.

“Hi,” the other Tony says. He sounds low and angry. “You’re not Steve; how about Hydra Ste—no, Hydra Cap? _Stevil_?”

“ _Tony_ ,” Tony says.

“Okay, your play, sorry,” the other Tony says.

They’re standing in the same room, both of them, well out of his reach even if he weren’t chained. His Tony is wearing his suit again, but he doesn’t have his helmet on.

His eyes are full of hatred. Steve thinks he loves him like that.

“Tony,” he says, pleadingly. “You know me. What’s going on here? Why is he—”

“Really?” Tony asks coldly. “Maybe you shouldn’t have talked to my comatose body quite so often. I could hear every word, and _you’re not Steve Rogers_.”

“Clearly,” the other Tony adds. “The real Steve would be smart enough not to let me work alone if there was something he didn’t want me to know.” He smiles darkly. “He did manage to keep a secret, too.”

“All right,” Steve says, dropping the act. “You’re wrong only in one respect. I am Steve Rogers. The man you want? He’s never even existed.”

Tony takes a step to him; his other self catches him by his arm. Tony’s armoured up, but he clearly lets himself be stopped.

“I know Steve,” Tony says slowly. “I loved him for years. That’s not a secret either, is it? He’s real. And I’m going to do exactly what he would do for me. _I’m going to save him_.”

Steve pulls on his chains, but they hold.

Of course they do: it is Tony Stark he’s up against.

He grins, sharp and challenging. “It didn’t feel like victory if I couldn’t take you down,” he says. “Bring your worst.”

Tony just smiles sadly. “I’ll save you,” he promises.

He leaves, his counterpart following him; neither of them looks back once.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [the other side of sorrow](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13789311) by [adarksweetness (chayaasi)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chayaasi/pseuds/adarksweetness)




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